Italian Sausage, Spinach and Ricotta Stuffed Shells

For as long as I can remember my family has had pasta for dinner on Christmas Eve, with the holiday ham reserved for Christmas Day. My mom is well known for her lasagna, and I kept the lasagna tradition going for a while with my own family. A few years back, I decided to try something a little different while still keeping to the tradition of Christmas Eve pasta. I’ve made Penne alla Vodka and Baked Rigatoni, but this year I’ve decided to try something different and make Italian Sausage, Spinach and Ricotta Stuffed Shells. Sounds good, right? Earlier this week I gave my stuffed shells recipe a trial run and am so pleased with how it turned out. YUM. It’s definitely a holiday worthy pasta dish.

Jumbo pasta shells filled with a mixture of sweet Italian sausage, spinach and ricotta cheese. Smothered in a chunky red sauce and topped with Mozzarella and Parmesan cheeses.

It’s not often that a recipe turns out perfect the first time, but this time the planets aligned giving me pasta perfection. I wouldn’t change anything about how these stuffed shells turned out. Compared to a lot of baked pasta dishes these shells take a little more time to assemble, but the end result is definitely worth it.

You could use ready-made marinara for this recipe, but it takes little more effort to make your own sauce. Especially for the holidays, it is definitely worth it.

There are no hard to find or expensive ingredients. I found everything I need for this recipe, including the Hunt’s Diced Tomatoes, from Walmart.

I always use Hunt’s tomatoes when making my own sauce. They are the purest tomato, from field to can with nothing in between. You can really taste the difference.

Instructions:
Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Cook pasta shells according to the instructions on the package. Drain, rinse in cold water, and set aside.

Heat olive oil in a large skillet on medium high heat. Add the onions and cook until softened, a few minutes. Add sausage to the pan, breaking up the sausage into smaller bits. Cook sausage about 5 minutes, until cooked through, and no pink remains. Add the garlic and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute. Remove pan from heat.

In a bowl, combine diced tomatoes and sauce and Italian seasoning. Spread half of the diced tomatoes into the bottom of a 9×13 baking dish.

In a large bowl, beat the egg lightly. Mix in the ricotta, chopped spinach, 1/2 cup of the Parmesan cheese, parsley, salt, pepper, and sausage mixture. Fill each cooked pasta shell with some of the ricotta, spinach, sausage mixture. Arrange the stuffed shells in the baking dish. Spread remaining diced tomatoes over the pasta and sprinkle with mozzarella cheese.

Note: Depending on how much filling you put into each pasta shell, you may or may not use the entire box of shells. I was very generous with the filling and ended up with 27 shells. You should be able to feed 8-10 people with this recipe, with a serving size of 3 to 4 shells per person.

Also, you could easily assemble this dish a day or two ahead. Just cover with foil and keep in the refrigerator until you are ready to bake it off and serve.

Instructions

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Cook pasta shells according to the instructions on the package. Drain, rinse in cold water, and set aside.

Heat olive oil in a large skillet on medium high heat. Add the onions and cook until softened, a few minutes. Add sausage to the pan, breaking up the sausage into smaller bits. Cook sausage about 5 minutes, until cooked through, and no pink remains. Add the garlic and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute. Remove pan from heat.

In a bowl, combine diced tomatoes and sauce and Italian seasoning. Spread half of the diced tomatoes into the bottom of a 9x13 baking dish.

In a large bowl, beat the egg lightly. Mix in the ricotta, chopped spinach, 1/2 cup of the Parmesan cheese, parsley, salt, pepper, and sausage mixture. Fill each cooked pasta shell with some of the ricotta, spinach, sausage mixture. Arrange the stuffed shells in the baking dish. Spread remaining diced tomatoes over the pasta and sprinkle with mozzarella cheese.

I never really thought of adding spinach to stuffed shells but it sounds good. I feel like I have been making the same recipes the same way for so many decades it is time for me to start experimenting again.

These look and sound delicious. I make something quite close to this only I havent used thespina ach in mine before. I am going to give it a try. I have also usedd burger instead of Italian sausage as it has less of a zing to it but either way would be really good. Such a nice hearty dish.

We don’t have a particular dish that we make no Christmas Eve.We generally just have finger foods & egg nog or hotcocoa. Your pasta dish oooks so yummy that I want to try it for any dinner! Thank you for sharing this recipe.

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The 411 On Us

Hi, I'm Angela, founder and content creator at About a Mom. I live in sunny Florida with my 10-year-old little girl. If you are seeking ideas and inspiration for family fun, mealtime, travel, or fun things to do in Florida, you will find it here. Please take a moment to explore this blog, check out my 'About Me' page or drop me a note.